Improvement in knitting-machines



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

JOHN CHAN'IRELL, OF BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN KNITTING-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N o. 28,255, dated May 15, 1860.

To @ZZ whom it 77mg concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN CHANTEELL, of Bristol, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Knitting Machinery; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being` had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a front view of a straight machine for ribbed knitting with all my improvements applied. Fig. 2 is a back view of the same with the bar which carries the yarnconductor broken away to expose the needles and sinkers. Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical section of the same. Fig. 4 is a plan of the same. 5 is a perspective view exhibiting the arrangement ot' the needles, siukers, and pressers. Fig. G is a side view of one of the selvage-tongues- Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a sinker of the same form as those exhibited in the machine. Figs. 8 and 9 are perspective views of modifications of the sinlrers.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several hgures.

My invention consists, irst, in so applying and operating the frame-needles, rib-needles, and sinkers of a ril'ibed-knitting machine that afteriiithe sinkers have given the loops to theA frame-needles the rib-needles take their loops directly from the sinlrers at the back of the frame-needles.

It consists, secondly, in the construction of the sinkers of aribbed-knitting machine with recesses, in which the needles are arranged to operate and across which the loops are extended in such a manner that the rib-needles have their operation greatly facilitated.

It consists, thirdly, in a novel construction of and mode of applying prcssers, in combination with bearded needles, whereby they are caused to operate upon the needles in a proper manner by the movements ofthe needles themselves.

It consists, fourthly, in a novel mode of applying and operating two fingers in combination with the selvage-needles and sinkers of a straight-knitting machine to aid them in forming the selvage; and it consists, lastly,

in an improved mode of driving the yarnguide of a straight-knitting machine.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to de-' scribe its construction and operation.

A represents the framing of the machine, having firmly bolted or otherwise secured to it two needle-plates B and C, arranged back to back and inclining toward each other in an upward direction. These plates are grooved in a similar in anner to the needle-plates of many other knitting-machines to receive thesliding jacks a a and e e', to the upper ends of which thetwo series of needles mand eeare attached. The fraine-needles ad are represented of the well-known elastic bearded form and the ribncedles of the latch construction. The several jacks are constructed each with two projec tions Z) b, the said projections on the jacks ai c entering lgrooves c c in the back of a slider D, which is fitted to slide horizontally in fixed guides d d in front of the stationary training A, and the corresponding projections on the ljacks e e entering grooves g g iu the front of a slider F, which is fitted to slide horizontally in fixed guides ff at the back of the stationary training, the said grooves c c and g g being so formed with offsets c and g', as indicated by dotted lines in Figs. l and 2, that by their action on the projections b b of the jacks, produced by the longitudinal 1novement of the slides D and F back and forth, they will give the necessary movements to all the needles of each series one after the other in regular succession and hold them severally stationary while required.

The slider D, which operates the frame-needles, has the offsets c' in its grooves so formed that it holds the said needles stationary for a short time after having raised them to their highest position; but the sliderF, which operates the ribneedles, has the offset g so formed that it produces the descent ot those needles almost immediately after having raised them to their highest position,and hence the slider D requires to have a longer move- A h 7L, attached to the ends of the former, which,

as is shown in Fig. 2, is somewhat the longest. The slider D, besides being madeto drive the slider F, is made to drive all the other moving parts of the machine, and for this purpose it has imparted to it a regular reciprocating motion by means of a crank or any other drivin g-gear connecting it with the driving-shaft of the machine.

E E are the sinkers, which may be of either' of the three forms representedby Figs. 7, S, and 9 5 butI preferthe form of thatrepresented in Fig. 7, which is of the same form represented in the machine, and which is the only one that I will for the present describe. It consists ofa strip of steel having a V-shaped notch 1l in its rear end, a recess j in one side extending from the notched extremity seme distance forward, aud two projections k k on its bottom edge. The prong at the bottom of the notch vl is longer than the one above, and the recess j should be made as deep as the thickness of the needles; but sufficient strength must be left in the notched part of the sinker to enable it to do its work. These sinkers are fitted to slide horizontally in a direction at right angles to the lines in which the two rows of needles are arranged in mortises in the under side of a stationary plate G, which-r is bolted to the front part of the top of the machine by boltsZ Z; but the said mortises are cut away to form open grooves in the bottom of the front part of the said plate to allow the projections 7c 7tto enter grooves 'an in the upper face of a slider H, which is arranged to work horizontally close under the sinker-plate G in fixed guides m m, bolted to the framing by bolts m m. The said grooves n n in the sliderI-I are so formed with offsets fn fn', as shown in dotted outline in Fig. 4, that they are made to produce the necessary operation of the sinkers one after the other in regular succession by the longitudinal movement of the slider back and forth produced by the action of an arm I, that is rigidly attached to the slider D between two small blocks o o, that are secured to the bottom of the slider H. The number of the sinkers employed will depend on the character of the ribbing to be produced, as is well understood by persons conversant with knitting machinery.

In the machine represented, which is for producing close ribbing, there is a rib-needle for every frame-needle, except that the two series terminate with a frame-needle at each end,thus making one more frame-needle, and the number of sinkers is one more than the number of frame-needles, the extra one being necessary, owing to a sinker being required outside of the needle at each selvage. The grooves of the sinker-plate G are so arranged relatively to the needle-grooves in the frameneedle plate B that the sinkers Work midway between the needles da, and the arrangement of the needle-grooves in the rib-needle plate-- C is such that the rib-needles pass into the recesses jj in the sides of the sinkers.

The movements of the sinkers and the two series of needles are timed as follows: Before the commencement of their operation in the production of a new course of stitches the needles are drawn down entirely below the upper edges of the needle-plates and the sinkers are drawn forward, so that their lower points are about even with thebacks of the frame-needles.

The needles a and c and sinker E next to the ,just before their respective rib-needles begin to rise, and as the latter needles rise they pass up into the,l recessesj in the sides of the sinkers between the sinkers and the thread that has been extended across the said recesses in the formation of the loopsfor the frameueedles, so that on their descent they take the thread to form their loops directly from the sinkers at the back of the frame-needles. The frame-needles commence their descent just as the points of the rib-needles pass the thread in their ascent, but the sinkers do not com" mence their forward movement till the rib needles have completed their ascentA and are about to commence their descent. The ribneedles, being of the latch kind and having shorter hooks than the frame-needles, do not require to move so high as the frame-needles, and as they are not required to remain stationary at the termination of their ascent, and they have the angle of the offset in their driving-slider E more acute than the angle of the offset in the driving-slider D of the frameneedles, they overtake the latter in their descent and both terminate their descent at the same time, so that both the fram@ and rib loops are completed at once. The sink-- ers, commencing their forward movement j ust before the rib-needles commence their descent, complete the said movement just before the needles a and e complete their descent.

The sinker exhibited by Fig. S is made in the form of a fork by riveting a notched piece fr of thin plate like the notched end of the sinker just described to each side of it. The space between the prongs o" r of this fork constitutes an equivalent of the recess j, serving to receive the rib-needle and tokeep the thread extended for it to pass through. Sinkers of this kind must have the rib-needles arranged directly opposite to them, and they will work between the frameneedles in the same manner as those iirst described.

The sinker represented in Fig. 9 is made of two thin plates having their rear extremities of the same notched form as the sinkers first described. These plates are riveted together at some distance from their notched ends, and made so that the said ends will spread apart rest till the needles rise again.

like a fork when not held together. These sinkers, like those represented by Fig. S, should have the rib-needles arranged directly opposite to them. They work between the frame-needles in the manner first described, having their points nearly closed by the grooves in the sinker-plate G at the commencement of their movement, but opening as they emerge from the grooves to make room for the rib-needles to enter their forks. the spaces in which, like those in thefork of the sinker, Fig. 9, are equivalent to the notches j in the lirst-described sinkers.

.l J are the pressers for closing the beards of the frame-needles a a in their descent to draw their new loops through the old ones. These pressers, which are arranged close together side by side, one in front of each frameneedle a, consist of parallel-sided pieces of iron or steel, each having a nib p, which projects over the top of the needle-plate B, and the whole are hung on a horizontal pin q, upon which they are free to vibrate freely, the said pin being arranged a little lower than the edges of the nibs. Vhile the needles a u are down below the top of the needle-plate B, the nibs of the pressers rest upon the top of said plate, as shown in Figs. and 5; but as the needles rise they, by coming in contact with the nibs of their respective pressers, raise the said nibs from the needle-plate, and so are enabled to pass the said nibs, which continue to be held up by the needles even after their beards have passed. As the needles descend, their barbs passing in contact with the'nibs p p of the pressers tend to depress the said nibs, and such depression, owing to the nibs being higher than the center of motion q and moving in arcs, causes the pressers to press horizontally, or nearly so, against the barbs, and so to close them and keep them closed during as much of the descent as is required. In the above action the pressers will not exert any injurious pressure against the needles, as the force by which they are made to act only what is due to the friction of the needles upon their edges. As the bends of the needles pass thepressers, the nibs fall to the top of the plate B,where they Each presser thus has its operation on its respective needle produced entirely by the action of such needle.

S s, Figs. 1,4, and G, are the two selvage-iingers consisting of thin pointed pieces of steel attached to short sliders L L, which are fitted to work in guides in the back parts of the ends of the framing in a direction parallel with the sinkers; but the said iingers have their points set in the opposite direction to the points of the sinkers and are arranged a little below and a little to the out-side of the two selvage-sinkers, so that they and the sinkers will not interfere with each other in their movements. The sliders L L have their rear ends connected by springs t t with the framing in such a manner that the said springs tend to draw them backward; but the said springs are prevented drawing them back farther than the positions in which the points of the fingers are just over the edge of the front needle-plate B by means of stoppieces u u, formed on the said sliders to come in contact with their guides. The said sliders are furnished each with a wedge-like projection to be acted upon by an arm M, carried by the rib-needle slider E for the purpose of forcing the said fingers forward just after the completion of a course of knitting, each one being forced forward only at the termination of those courses of stitches which are produced by knitting' toward its respective selvage. The finger, moving forward after the yarn-guide N has passed it, passes over the thread between the yarn-guide and the last loop on the needles, and remaining in theforward condition during the commencement of the movement of the yarn-guide N in the opposite direction to commence the next course has the thread conductedover it, and hence a loop is formed round it, and this loop being taken from it by its respectiveselvage-sinker forms the selvage loop.

The yarn-guide N is carried by a bar P, which is fitted to slide longitudinally in a horizon tal direction parallel with the two rows of needles in fixed guides t* v in the framing. As the said guide N requires to commence its movement simultaneously with the movement of the fram e-needle slider D and to stop before the movement of the said needle-slider ceases and the bar P is driven by the said slider it becomes necessary to connect the said slider .and bar before the commencement of the movement of the former in either direction and to disconnect them before the termination of the said movement.

The connection of the said bar and slider is effected by means of two spring-catches R `R', attached to the bar, and two grooved blocks Q Q', attached to the front of the slider, and the disconnection is effected by two stationary wedges y y', attached to the ends of the framing to act upon the spring-catches R R. The

blocks Q Q are beveled at the sides of their grooves w w in such a manner, as shown at ai in Fig. i, that the springs will slip easily into the said grooves, but the sides of the said grooves are square with their backs, so that the said springs will not slip out of them. As the slider D terminates its stroke to the right of Fig. l or left of Fig. 2, the beveled side of the block Q', which is nearest the end of the slider, passes under the end of the spring R', and the said spring drops into the groove of said block and so connects the bar with the slider, so that on the return of the 'slider it takes the bar with it. Just before the. returnstroke of the slider terminates, the catch Q arrives at the wedge y, and, by passing over the face of the said wedge, is thrown out of the groove cu of the block Q, and consequently the bar P is detached from the slider and so caused to stop While the slider completes its stroke. As the slider completes this strol e that is to say, to the left of Fig. l-the beveled outside of the block Q passes under the springcatch R, and the said spring drops into the groove of the said block and so effects the connection of the slider and bar P for the succeeding stroke-Viz., toward the right of Fig. l. Before this stroke terminates the springcatch R, by passing over the face ofthe wedge fg, is thrown out of the groove in the block Q and the bar P left statonary,while the slider completes its stroke. In this way the yarngiiide is niade always to commence its movenient with the slider D, but to stop before the slider terminates its stroke.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. So applying and operating the fram e-needles, the rib-needles, and the sinkers of a ribbed-knitting machine, in combination withv each other, that after the sinkers have given theloops to the frame-needles the rib-needles take their loops directly from the sinkers at specified.

5. Combiningthebai'Whichcariiestheyarnguide With a slider which operates the needles by means of grooved blocks Q Q and spring-catches R R acted upon by stationary Wed ges yy', substantially as herein described.

JOHN CHANTRELL. Witnesses:

HENRY A. MITCHELL, AMos M. JoHNsoN. 

